when it happens, you won't be laughing. think of theism implications for the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich. >> lisa writes i'm still awake in arizona because i was stuck by a scorpion last night. >> stop tweeting the show and receive medical attention immediately. that is a first. new demographic for us. people up because they're been stung by animal problems. bob in new hampshire. a bull moose kept me awake all night with his woe ful calls. >> you know what keeps me up doing that every night? mike barnicle outside the window of my apartment, got that deep mating call. i don't know what that means. "morning joe" starts right now. he is in new york for the u.n. general assembly or as we like to think of it, the reason i can't get to work because of traffic!

the event is a gathering of the diplomatic juggalos. an incredible opportunity for our president not just to address the world community but for some high-level president-on-prez action. >> the white house says he has no plans to have any private meetings with world leaders. >> oh. well. probably protocol. this is not the time for one-on-one meetings with other world leaders. >> our research shows it's been 20 years since the president has been to that meeting and not met one on one with a foreign leader. >> oh. well, i guess if the world leads would like to meet with him personally, they can just donate $5 to his campaign and take their chances like the rest of us. >> good morning. it's wednesday, september 26th. welcome to "morning joe." it's another good day here on

the set. >> it is a great day on the set. >> with us on set -- >> because we say so. >> yeah. it really is. >> that's great. >> everyone's in good shape today. we have msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst mark halperin with us. good morning. >> hello. >> congratulations. >> huge! is heilman out of the ditch yet? >> he's doing well. we're both very happy. happy to be home. >> he actually -- they got the gurney to get him on the plane back home? what happened? how did he get back on the plane? >> straitjacket. >> straitjacket. >> i'm sure they did. >> as i said to him, he's still in the mohave desert with charlie sheen. the peyote is just wearing off. >> he was spotted at the clinton global initiative yesterday. >> we also have former governor of pennsylvania and nbc news political analyst ed rendell. >> morning, mika. >> good to have you here. >> it's the phillies' year. i'm feeling good.

they're going to do it this year. >> great shirt, joe. it's awesome. >> nice american flag. >> what's going on there? >> who loves america more than you, willie geist? where's your american flag? >> i do put my hand over my heart during the anthem. >> good for you. >> how about during the pledge? >> that, too. >> he spits on the ground during the pledge. we'll talk about that later. >> he's proud to be an american. >> because at least he knows he's free. >> all right. can i do the news? >> we're in trouble. >> but you're all not interested, so let's just move on. >> we republicans are in trouble. >> yes, you are. why don't we talk about newt gingrich trying to keep todd akin on the campaign trail. you want to go there? >> i'd rather talk about what's really relevant, and that is the fact that i guess, what, a couple weeks ago -- i tried to sound the warning. >> mm-hmm. >> like a fireman, you know, you're kicking down the door and the house is on fire. and i'm yelling at people in the bed, "get out!

get out!" save yourself. and they were all screaming at me. why are you so negative, you rhino? >> you were lashed out at. >> no, but the thing is -- and there's a great "wall street journal" piece. and i said this over the weekend on "meet the press." you know, poor bay buchanan was doing what poor bay buchanan had to do. her job is to prop up the romney campaign when even people in the romney campaign are saying horrible things about how bad the campaign's going behind the scenes. you know, talking about "the wall street journal" and the fact that laura ingram's had legitimate concerns and rush, you go down the concerns. this is not an ideological campaign, it's not a conservative campaign. not conservatives because the conservatives that are leaders who understand what a mess this country's in and our party's in, they're with me. but let's just say some of the screechers, whether it's on

certain talk radio shows, people -- you know, they're blaming the polls. it's the pollsters' fault, right? just like walter mondale's people were blaming the polls back in 1984 a day before the election. the day before reagan got 49 states. blaming everything else but where the blame lies. and that is mitt romney and his horrible campaign. peggy noonan was right. you know, these idiots blast people like peggy noonan, these idiots blast people like "the wall street journal." these idiots blast people like laura ingram. why aren't you a loyal republican? well, i think a loyal republican says the house is on fire. and time's running out. if we want to save this house, we'd better do it now. i tried that a couple of weeks ago. guess what? time's running out. you know when early voting starts in ohio? less than a week. >> 26 states have already started voting. >> 26 states have already started early voting. in ohio where we're going to show some polls this morning

that show just how horribly mitt romney's doing in ohio. you know what? i was saying last week there are 45 days. there aren't really 45 days left. they've got to turn this thing around or they lose. this is what jason riley wrote in "the wall street journal" yesterday. media blame game. this from a conservative publication, by the way, extreme right-wing trolls. "the wall street journal." just like "the wall street journal's" been warning mitt romney's campaign for a month now that he'd better do something or else he's going to lose. "since pulling even in the polls after the paul ryan pick and the gop convention last month, the romney campaign has stumbled repeatedly. yet mr. romney, who is losing by five or more points in iowa, colorado, wisconsin, michigan, ohio, florida and virginia, sees blue skies ahead. asked how he intended to turn his campaign around, mr. romney told "60 minutes," well, it doesn't need a turnaround. and romney surrogates were out over the weekend blaming the liberal media for the campaign's

troubles. the press didn't treat ronald reagan and george w. bush any less unfairly, and both men managed not only to win the presidency but to get re-elected. mr. romney would do better to focus more on reducing his unforced errors and less on the fourth estate's political bias. if whining about the liberal media was a winning strategy for republicans, newt gingrich would be the nominee." >> well, and newt gingrich is a great example -- i don't mean to go back there -- a great example of the problem we're talking about here. because -- >> no. >> -- no, instead of stepping forward and separating himself from this candidate, he somehow, because of his party -- >> todd akin is going to lose. that's a distraction. >> it is. >> i'm talking about the presidential race. we're one week out from the first presidential debate, and we have brand-new polling out this morning from three separate swing states that show this race is slipping away. >> and they're the big three.

>> and they're the big three, mika. >> yes, they are. are you ready? >> i'm ready for you to talk about the presidential race. >> zip it. according to the latest quinnipiac university/new york times/cbs news poll of likely voters, it's actually related -- >> no, it's not. >> president obama leads romney by 10 percentage points in ohio. no republican has lost and then won the presidency. the president is up nine points in florida and has opened up a 12-point lead in pennsylvania. in the same poll, president obama leads mitt romney in his handling of the economy in all three states. 51% of polled voters say the president would do the better job. >> okay, let's go back to the last slide, guys. and mark halperin, let's talk to you. i know you agree with me that the media is liberal. guess what? republicans have somehow managed to win despite that media liberal bias. you've said it repeatedly on this show. so despite that fact, mitt romney is not getting crushed in

all three of these states because of the liberal media bias. what's happening there, and why is he losing so badly, especially in ohio? >> well, it's very unlikely the president will win those states by those margins, but these numbers are not out of line dramatically with private polling and some other public polling. i think the biggest problem right now remains him. he's not driving a consistent message. the president does -- says something, the republicans get all excited about it. they treat it like a gaffe. they'll talk about it for a day. and then they'll move on to something else. the biggest danger to me right now for the republican party are two things. one is that you look at the polls in terms of who people now think's going to win. and from elite republicans and from rank-and-file republicans you hear increasingly the president's going to win. that is a very dangerous thing for anyone to be running in the headwinds of. and the other thing is, right now democrats could not only hold the senate, they could actually pick up a seat in the senate. and i don't know what happens to

the house. if the president wins by these huge margins and they pick up a senate seat rather than lose control of the senate, the house is going to be in play. it's not today, but republicans right now are in danger of having this thing just fall in on itself. and it all can be turned around if governor romney performs better. >> and by the way, bill kristol has begun to be concerned with the weekly standard about republicans losing the house. again, you know, you don't help your party when the person at the top of the ticket is doing such a horrific job that he could not only endanger the presidency but could endanger both houses. >> is it the person at the top of the ticket that's ultimately so flawed, ed rendell, that the party won't be able to move forward? >> well, absolutely. although i don't think romney started out as a flawed candidate. i think mark's point is revel. and the romney campaign is not the only who makes this mistake. campaigns today focus on winning the day, winning the day.

president obama says a bump in the road. so they get all excited and push it, bump in the road, and it distracts them from what ought to be their overall theme and message. and the media drives that, but the campaigns don't have to react to the media. if i were planning a presidential campaign, that would be lesson one. stay on course. don't get distracted by the theme of the day. all the romney campaign seems to be doing is reacting to the theme of the day. >> if you look inside those numbers, too, "the new york times" poll and also "the washington post" poll, people in ohio, now people in florida, too, by a majority are saying the economy's getting better. i trust president obama now to lead the economy. this is a man who's up against huge unemployment numbers. you can rattle through all the economic data that should not be good for president obama. and yet in three or four states that matter, the tide is switching on those questions. >> don't you think florida is shocking? of those three, i thought florida nine points is the most shocking. >> in one poll, florida four points in "the washington post" poll.

i've said it for months, any republican candidate that's losing the state of florida has serious problems. >> willie's right, the economic numbers are huge. the other thing that relates is the gender gap. inside these latest quinnipiac polls. the gender gap is gigantic. why did the romney campaign have as their surrogates bay buchanan and liz cheney and kelly ayotte? because they have a huge gender problem, and they're not addressing it with these daily attacks on the president's so-called gaffes. >> ann romney was on "leno" last night. i didn't see the whole thing, but the clips i saw, i don't know. i know that's tough to say, but the relatability issue is constant. >> you know, and there's a bigger issue. they're having trouble relating. remember, driving around tampa, and we drove past -- ed, you'll understand this. being a populist republican, a conservative populist southern republican, we were going past all of these sort of little ranch houses.

probably 1,800 square feet, whatever. probably cost $70,000, $75,000. as we were driving past, i said you know why mitt romney's not going to win? look at these houses. you know every one of these houses when i ran in my district, every one of them voted for me. every single person. i could go knock on the door, and they'd know my name. they'd ask for the yard sign. i said, how many of these little ranch houses here do you think are going to vote for mitt romney? so just so i don't make it about myself, you could have said the same thing about george w. bush. those people in those ranch houses voted for george w. bush. >> or jeb. >> or jeb, they voted for jeb bush. they voted for ronald reagan. they voted for conservatives that they thought could relate to them. you look at those ranch houses now, and they may not like barack obama, but are they going to get out and vote for mitt romney? i think -- mika, you know? and you were looking at them. it's the relatability issue. >> you can't tell anymore who

they would vote for. it used to be pretty clear. i want to show you this sound bite. mitt romney is spending, of course, his third straight day in ohio. president obama heads to the state this morning. today's "new york times" is reporting that aides to romney say the republican candidate and running mate paul ryan will be campaigning together more often in the coming weeks, according to the report. the move underscores concerns that mr. romney is not generating enough excitement on his own and needs mr. ryan to fire up supporters that may have been evident during a campaign stop yesterday outside dayton. >> wow! that's quite a guy, isn't it? paul ryan! isn't that something? wait a second. wait a second. romney, ryan! romney, ryan! romney, ryan! there we go. all right. that's great. thank you. >> oh. sweet jesus. >> i'm sorry. i'm sorry.

i shouldn't be so hard on you. i shouldn't bring up newt gingrich. >> it's just irrelevant. >> it doesn't even matter. >> it's irrelevant. what do the catholics say? holy mary mother of god? >> it's not going to work. >> pray for our sinners in thy hour of peace. >> it's not going to work. it's too late for that. >> it seems to me -- except what would happen, it's the end of "godfather 2," i'm fredo on the back of the boat about to get it in the back of my head. >> how do you fix that? >> you don't fix it. sadly, i said this about mitt romney's a great man. he is. he's a great father, a great husband. he is a great businessman, great turnaround guy. if i had a business anywhere in the world, i'd have him run it. he just -- he's a horrible politician. he's one of the worst. he's a great guy. i just want to say, he's a great, great guy, but man, ed rendell -- you know him. great guy.

>> i'm astounded at the campaign. mitt romney i knew when he was governor of massachusetts was smart, was competent, was confident. >> so that's it. you think that he could be worked with if he had the right team around him? >> well, i think they tried to make him into something he's not. and when that happens in politics, it screws you up forever. he is a moderate. he believes in certain things. he should have been proud -- when he demonstrated to us his health care plan, myself and my staff went up there when he was still governor. he was proud of the plan. he knew every little detail about the plan. and he was enthusiastic about it. >> blew people away. >> and the plan is a great plan. be proud of it. be proud of it. it's a major accomplishment. don't run from it. you've got to be yourself in politics. voters have a great sixth sense of knowing when you're someone trying to be someone you're not. >> remember george h.w. bush back in 1988 when, you know, we'd look at him as such a great man now, but sometimes he would try to be -- he'd get a little goofy on the campaign trail, and

he would embarrass himself. and when he was himself, he was -- >> terrific. >> -- he was a remarkable man. he was a war hero. he was a great leader. it's rough. i don't understand, though, you know, willie, we were covering him four years ago in iowa, in new hampshire where he was playing right-wing evangelical conservative. and it didn't work for him. nobody believed it. and we heard over the next four years he was going to be himself this time. >> yeah. >> he's still not himself. >> we're not seeing it. we've seen a number of interviews where he's asked a question -- and we've said this many times, and you can see the gears turning -- what am i supposed to say here? not to offend conservatives or whoever it may be instead of just being himself. it may have caught up to him. mika talked about relatability inside some of these "washington post" polls of yesterday. people saying who represents my interests? who gets me? who understands me? that goes to president obama, even among some republicans. >> and you go back to i thought a seminole moment in this moment was when mitt romney was asked

about the blood amendment. you recall his first response to the blunt amendment was i would never be in favor of that. i think cantor and boehner and those guys got to him. and the next day he was all for the blunt amendment. he had a chance to carve out some relationship with women by saying the blunt amendment is abusive, and i'm against it. and what were conservatives going to do, vote for barack obama? he had so many chances during the campaign to carve out his own identity, which i think is closer to the real mitt romney. >> mark halperin? >> two events here in the city, at the global initiative, talked about america's role in the world, then he did an education nation interview with brian, very good. showed the fact that he's a policy guy, that he cares about issues. but that mitt romney does not get very much attention. and he doesn't put it on display very often. and it's now -- the thing he has to become is a fighter. he has to have people like joe scarborough look at him every

day on the trail, every day, every event and say, he's fighting for the party. he's fighting for the country. he's fighting to turn the country around. i don't see that. but if he doesn't become that before the first debate and in the first debate, it's going to be very hard to keep the party together behind him. >> again, time's running out. october 2nd is early voting in ohio. you've got the first debate coming up. you've got people like karl rove. karl rove every day. and that's the guy i would be looking at if i were mitt romney. not just mitt romney but all of us should look at karl rove. what's karl doing with his money? karl knows how to use money in campaigns better than anybody else. i still think the 2004 win, one of the remarkable achievements in modern presidential history -- >> anybody else alive? >> right. it's better than anybody else alive at this, figuring it out, how to spread the money. i remember calling him, asking him to help one of my friends in the gubernatorial race, and he was tough, and he asked all the right questions. and at the end of the campaign, i was, like, maybe he doesn't get the money. but if karl rove decides that

this thing is lost at some point, he's going to spend that money on saving the republican house and saving the republican senate. and when that happens, you know, it all goes off a cliff for the romney campaign. i'm not saying that's going to happen, but everybody needs to keep a close eye on karl rove because karl rove is not going to waste people's money. people that contributed to him, he's going to make sure that he has something to show for it. >> and those decisions will be made a day or two after the first debate. >> watch john boehner, too. he's got a propensity to speak his mind. if this thing's in a bad place in a couple weeks, i think you'll see boehner and other republican leaders. >> john boehner's going to have to protect his speakership. you're losing ten points in john boehner's home state, john boehner's going to be concerned, for good reason. and what about mitch? mitch wants to be majority leader. and he has a chance. so yeah.

mika. by the way, wasn't it great seeing bill clinton again yesterday? >> it was a very nice interview. i thought you both were very well behaved. you really like each other. it's unbelievable sometimes when they get together. it was good. he was good. don't you think? >> i thought it was great. >> i like the clinton global ni initiative a lot, what they do. >> great stuff. >> it was fun. great to be over there. tony blair was fantastic. guess who we have coming up. >> who's that? >> former british prime minister gordon brown. >> no way. >> it continues. and get this, sheila bair comes to the table. her new become on the financial crisis has some stinging words for treasury secretary tim geithner. also, award-winning presidential historian evan thomas will take us inside his new book on dwight eisenhower. and from the new nbc show "guys with kids," actor anthony anderson will be here. and coming up, mike allen with the top stories in the

"politico playbook." first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill. >> he's fantastic. >> well, no, we would not go that far. >> no? >> yeah. >> sorry. >> unadulterated man love for bill karins. >> she has a poster in her room. that's what i heard. >> she does. >> she does. >> she's on meds again. >> good morning, everyone. unfortunately, the gorgeous september weather that we've been experiencing in new england and the mid-atlantic has come to an end. it looks like a cloudy kind of gloomy period will move in starting today and continue with us through the upcoming weekend. these are just light showers through central new england that are now pushing up towards maine. we've also got numerous other areas of rain back towards pittsburgh and cleveland. today's forecast, hit and hiss showers and storms. temperatures in the 70s throughout the day. we will see -- at least mild. not going to be that chilly. the worst weather in the country once again coming out of southern illinois through southern indiana. some heavy rain and thunderstorms. they've been near louisville and cincinnati this morning. you're going to dodge them all

day long. as far as airports go, i think the cincinnati and louisville parents will probably see the worst of it. maybe delays in st. louis and kansas city from showers and storms. i mentioned it's kind of a gloomy period. the southern half of the country is not experiencing that. neither is the northern half. it's right through the middle. i want to tell you, washington, d.c., one of those spots that you're going to struggle to see sunshine even as we go throughout the next five days in a row. so i really have to say, we've been spoiled this september. and unfortunately, it's coming to an end. you're watching "morning joe." we're brewed by starbucks.

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this is the pursuit of perfection. on saturday, ann romney's plane had to make an emergency landing. after an electrical fire broke out on board. now, i'm happy to hear that she is fine. mitt used this close call to present a bold idea. >> when you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go exactly. there's no -- and you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft because the windows don't open. i don't know why they don't, do they? but it's a real problem. >> it is a real problem. for one thing, it explains why burger king doesn't have a fly-through window. >> at 27 past the hour, it's

time now to take a look at the "morning papers," shall we? >> you know what? i'm going to talk about it if you're not careful. you might want to change your tone. >> i will too, if you're not careful. you want to go there? >> i do, actually. "the wall street journal," home prices in the u.s. made their strongest yearly gains since 2005, rising 5.9% during july. during the same period last year, home prices rose just 4%. analysts believe low mortgage rates and a rise in demand have attributed to the increase in price. >> that's good news. that's something we can both agree on, mika. >> mm-hmm. >> that and the great taste of a crystal burger in the morning. marissa mayer tells her plan to turn around an internet company. user growth and advertising revenue by bringing new talent to the company while shifting yahoo!'s focus to smartphones

and tablet devices. isn't that fascinating? >> where's the kansas story? >> what story? >> there's a story out of kansas that we do now. >> on kansas? >> yeah. >> what's the matter with kansas? >> what happened to that? did we just bury it? >> i don't have that on "papers." >> never mind. i assumed you guys were interested in it. >> you know what's depressing about marissa mayer? these amazing. >> that's the coolest thing in the world. >> you're up at 5:30 in the morning. let's go to politico. the chief white house correspondent is mike allen with a look at the playbook. good morning, mike. we've been talking about the polls in "the new york times," quinnipiac poll, also "the washington post" poll. we're writing about a new worry for mitt romney, and that is holding white men. what's the problem there? >> yes, can you believe it? talk about the base. white men have gone 60/40 for

the republican nominee every time since 1972. there's one exception in there. but all of a sudden, this is a problem for mitt romney. and it all seems to do with the fallout from that video when many of the people that he wrote off as part of the 47% turned out to be working blue-collar men. they're calling it the he session because about half of the lost jobs belonged to white males. it went to iowa which is sort of ground zero for this fight and found that all of a sudden this is another worry for mitt romney. so the problem for mitt romney is that everything's on fire at once. that he can't just go live in ohio because he has to worry about florida and virginia. he can't just focus on women because now all of a sudden he has a problem with white men. an astonishing statistic that just went up from a new

"washington post"/abc news poll. 61% of people view mitt romney's campaign negatively. that's up 15 points since mid-july. that has to be that videotape. that was the biggest game changer in that period. >> real quick, mike allen, we don't want to write obituaries. we're a month and a half away from election day. but when you look at these polls we have out this morning combined with what you're talking about here, what can the romney campaign do at this point to change the forces of gravity? >> yeah. all day long, i ask republicans, what would you do? if you were them, what would you do? or ask romney people, what can you do? going back to when i was cov covering the king george county board of supervisors in virginia, i always ask a candidate, how do you think you're going to win? and it's tough. it's sort of out of their hands. they're depending now on a br k barack obama implosion as well as mitt romney suddenly doing so well in this debate.

so they can't -- it's -- the margins in these states are so big that they need both obama to go down as they're going up. >> all right, mike. and apparently you've been deputized by "sports illustrated." you're here to reveal the new cover of "sports illustrated." >> what? >> there's a lot of good news, good buzz inside the beltway. it's on the cover of "sports illustrated" this week. they're calling washington/baltimore america's unlikely new sports capital. seth davis, lanny son is writing in "sports illustrated" about the beltway as the new sports super power. we have the washington nationals tied with the reds for the best team in baseball. we have great hope for the redskins with this quarterback, rg3 which "sports illustrated" compares him to president obama. >> i hope he's better than that. >> yeah. it's definitely a moment. i can tell you as a yankee fan,

the orioles are frightening at this point. >> aren't they something? >> mike allen, thanks so much. >> have a good week. >> a point of personal privilege here. >> please. >> i want to hear about one story today and one story only. and i want to know what's going on in kansas. mika, do we have a kansas story? >> that is just so transparent. >> what? what's transparent? >> i told you you needed to be neisser. >> i am. what do you think about the story? >> you will like it, actually. >> i know i will. let's hear it. >> they're fighting back against new school lunch guidelines that restrict calorie intake among teens. >> i love kids. >> seems like a good idea. >> the intent was to promote healthy eating. but after having their lunches cut to 850 calories, what the hell? some students say they're still

hungry. student athletes who end up burning thousands of calories by some of the day or some of them, students are protesting their new dietary restrictions creating this spoof based on the hit song "we are young" by the popular band fun. state education and nutrition officials say many instances, the portion sizes have not changed. and students can now get more food with unlimited servings of fruits and vegetables. they're fighting back. they want their junk food back. >> who says our yaouth is apathetic? >> i know, they're involved. >> they care. >> yeah. >> i will say if we can talk seriously about it for one second that for -- yeah, for kids that sit around and play video games all day, 850 calories, that's too much. >> right. >> they should be eating a lot less. you have a kid that wakes up, you know, at 4:30 in the morning, is a swimmer. >> goes to football practice. >> i can tell you when i did two-a-days in florida, i probably consumed, you know, it was 99 degrees. i probably consumed 5,000

calories a day. >> without gaining weight. >> and i couldn't gain weight. so you have to be careful with teenagers. >> depending on their development, they do need to take in -- they need the right food. it should not be hard. >> krispy kreme doughnuts. >> to feed our children. >> crystal burgers. up next -- >> by the way, are we going to get a chick-fil-a up north any time soon, willie? >> it became less likely. >> why is that? >> why is that? >> i wish it weren't true. >> we don't live in chicago. you know what we do have in new york? >> mad dog. he's cute. he's got a personality. >> and i think he's cute with a personality, too. >> oh, good. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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what would you do about those referees in the nfl? would you order them back to work? >> i'd sure like to see some experienced referees with nfl experience come back onto the nfl playing fields. >> paul ryan called those refs out today. are you glad that he did that?

>> that's just fine. paul was very angry that the green bay packers he believes won and the referees took it away from them. >> that was mitt romney weighing in on the nfl referee lockout yesterday. here with us -- >> you know what? he's such a natural. >> he loves sports. >> stop it. >> he loves sports. >> joe, we're all pro-union today. >> here to help us through the referee controversy, chris russo headlines his own sports channel on sirius xm called "mad dog radio." >> how are you guys? governor, nice to see you. a little light out of mitt romney. >> oh! >> what a disgrace. and it's the owners' fault. they are the stewards of the game. when you are the stewards of the game, you must protect the game. and they are not protecting the game. >> they're not. >> this is ownership that charges fans full tickets, full ticket prices for preseason football, okay? makes you buy a psl before you can buy a season ticket. >> i don't know what one is. >> what's a psl? >> you have to buy the seat, then buy the season tickets. seat licenses.

for all their new stadiums. >> excuse me? >> buy it for life. >> buy it for life. >> every day for the rest of your life. >> but just for your -- >> and you have the right to pass it to your kids. >> mad dog, let's break this down. >> that's a joke. the whole thing's a joke. >> it is a joke. how much money does the nfl make a year? >> $9 billion a year! >> let's talk about money. how much money do the refs want a game or a year in >> it's about this pension. they want this pension scenario fixed. they've been very strong about it. you would know more about this than me. >> it's not a salary issue. the point is who cares what the issue is? $9 billion! give us the officials back, again, screws around with times on games, makes you sit at 9:00 at night in january and freeze your butt off in football games, preseason and pay full prices

and they're going to screw around and the wrong team wins on monday night. they should be ashamed. the owners should be ashamed. >> it's amazing, they don't seem to care. we said two weeks ago it's going to end. then they went on another week. they put out this statement yesterday where they said we agree we have to review the officiating, but they haven't said enough is enough. >> i thought for sure we'd have goodell tell us yesterday at 5:00, we errored, our mistake, officials are coming back, and they didn't do that which shocked me. >> the problem i think with most professional sports is the commissioners who used to be, years ago, strong and independent. the commissioners now are so dependent on the owners that they aren't an independent voice. >> goodell is strong, is he not? >> but if he's strong, he just calls up everybody and says, guys, we're doing this. >> and he hasn't done that. the governor is 100% right. >> david rozelle would have done this. >> or stern. he's on top of it. again, think about it for a second. the nfl is making a mockery of these regular-season games.

coaches are acting poorly. the players are barbaric now. they're going crazy because they know they can get away with everything. one referee putting his hands up. the other guy saying it's an interception. the seahawks who were completely out of line. let's not make it sound like you won the super bowl. walk off the field quietly. thank the lord you got a win and move on. pete carroll, golden tate, shut up. nobody wants to hear it for goodness sakes. i like what the packers did. mccarthy didn't say anything. aaron rodgers, after the game, you know, he got robbed but he was pretty good about it. green bay handled this superbly, unlike belichick who did a bad job. but again, think about it. $9 billion. this is pennies we're talking about. >> pennies. >> pennies. i'm on the show! you're getting lambasted here! it's stupid. it doesn't make any sense. >> governor, what are we doing? >> i think this is a little bit about ideology and control. when it becomes a question of who's tougher than the other

side, then all reason goes out the window. and that's what i think has happened here. it's a question of we're going to teach these refs. we run the nfl. and you've got to operate in the best interests of the game. because the clause in almost every sport, best interests of the game. >> why don't the players do what willie i heard they were thinking about doing, start taking a knee. we're going to go out there, don't come out to the game, we hate to do this to you, fans, but we're going to go out and take a knee because it's not safe to play out there. it's not fair for our teams. we want to let you guys see us play in the playoffs, and these refs are going to risk that for us. >> one of the packers players, t.j. long, who's been very vocal tweeting, going on the radio said it's going to get to the point we'll have to go out, take a knee and wait. i don't think they'll go that far. they don't have guaranteed contracts. they don't want to hurt the game. >> the players have been barbaric. they're killing each other on the field because they know they can get away with it. and the coaches have not acted with decorum. you have to rush on the field to

make it worse. john fox, jack del rio. >> the replacement officials, they're not bad men. they're trying to do the best they can. >> it's not their fault. >> they're in over their heads. >> you talk to everybody, i remember hearing emmitt talk, a pensacola guy, about the difference between college game and the pro game. he said, man, the first time you get hit and you see how fast everything moves, he said it's a whole new world. he said it was mind bending. and so if you're a ref and you're used to seeing things at one speed and you've been doing that for 20 years -- >> very hard. >> -- it's unfair to these replacement refs to put them out there with 50,000 people watching and say keep up with all this. go. it's not fair. >> and they did naia football. this is the lowest level. >> it's not the s.e.c. refs. >> again, if they had been trained to be nflr echlrefs, i'e

they'd be good. you can't teach them overnight. it's not fair to them. >> i like what the governor said. the nfl is so used to winning. these owners have been so successful. they've made billions of dollars. this is the little play pen for them, and they don't want to use. bottom line is take a knee. you've lost this one. give up what you have to give up. the officials have won. america is ticked off at you. and you know what? move on to the next game. this is absurd. >> by the way, i'm sorry. >> the truth is they think their brand is so strong and the nfl is so powerful, they can weather this and it won't hurt the game. >> they're getting destroyed. hey, willie, we have another sports story. it's a romantic sports story. mika? >> it's actually an endurance issue. >> so talk about that. >> 30 years, mike and ann. >> mike barnicle. >> they celebrated. they went to where their first date was. >> wow! where do you think mike's first date was? >> fenway park. >> fenway. >> how cute is that?

>> i did not know that. congratulations. mike barnicle. >> and ann was there, too. that's so nice. >> happy anniversary. >> happy 30th anniversary. >> you think their seats were better this year? >> you know what? i think they had pretty good seats. ann's always been connected. >> ann, you are amazing. seriously. >> mike, we love you, but we have no idea how ann, stuck in there for 30 years. >> happy anniversary. >> did the red sox win? >> no, the red sox lost. that's just what they do these days. that's our thing this year. mike and i have been talking about it, they lose a lot of games. should they clear out some of the underbrush, all the pink hat red sox fans? >> all right, chris. >> boil it back down to the -- >> the originals. the misery is back. >> yeah. >> chris always captures the mood of the fans. >> all over the place. >> and the fans are angry. >> again, you owe it to protect it. they're not doing that right now. >> chris russo, thanks. up next, mika's "must-read opinion pages." woman 1: this isn't just another election. we're voting for...

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♪ she's a killer queen ♪ dynamite with a laser beam a live look at the white house, lights are on, sun's coming up over washington at 50 past the hour. time for one must-read opinion page. katrina vanden heuvel in "the washington post" writes this. elizabeth warren, the people's champion. >> i'm sorry, go ahead. go ahead. no, it's all right. i was just thinking about a joke i heard yesterday. go ahead. >> throughout the campaign, mark halperin, warren has delivered an unabashed populist message. she first made the common-sense case that no one succeeded alone. that successful businesspeople depend on what we've built together, an educated work force, roads and transport to deliver their products, a rule of law vital to working markets. this isn't a radical notion, but

when adopted and badly phrased by president obama, it sparked the frenzied republican "we built it" campaign. warren will focus on the core issues and ask massachusetts voters to decide who is on their side. and if she wins, she'll not only lead a new generation of progressive reformers into the senate, but also begin to teach democrats how to fight for working people once more." mark? >> vanden heuvel, not ratner, on that. >> not ratner. >> we don't have ratner here to dispute. >> just to game out what's going on a little bit if the president stays ahead in these leads and polls, republicans may turn to an argument we've seen made in past campaigns which is we need a check on the president. you've got to vote for scott brown because we don't want a rubber stamp on barack obama. now, the president might argue -- and democrats will argue -- give me unified control. let's get things done. i don't know if the country wants nancy pelosi back as speaker, wants elizabeth warren there pushing the president further to the left. right now democrats have a

choice to make about whether they really push for that message of get washington unstuck by giving us back unified control. if elizabeth warren's in the senate and scott brown isn't, you're going to see a lot of democrats in the senate. but if he wins massachusetts, if the president wins massachusetts by 20 points, scott brown can't win. >> yeah. and that, again, is how a failed mitt romney campaign is going to pose a problem. >> i thought scott brown, his campaign brilliantly made a terrible mistake about this native american stuff. just terrible. >> i think it was a sign of desperation. >> and he's been a brilliant campaigner. >> you know, mike barnicle has said that that is actually a big issue up in massachusetts among working-class swing voters, but kind of reminds me of '88 and bush going to one flag factory too much, you know, dukakis made a mistake on the pledge of

allegiance deal and bush hammered it home. i thought, yeah. i think he's gone too far on that. and then yesterday, a report that some of brown's people were doing a tomahawk chop and chanting. >> and his staff. >> come on. >> yeah, his staff. >> his senate staff. and this is the sort of stuff that, you know, i don't say campaigns turn on things like this, but, you know, they need to drop that. >> and her response ad is terrific. >> that's a pretty good ad. still ahead, former british prime minister gordon brown joins us on set. more "morning joe" when we come back. i i had pain in my abdomen...g. it just wouldn't go away. i was spotting, but i had already gone through menopause. these symptoms may be nothing... but they could be early warning signs of a gynecologic cancer, such as cervical, ovarian, or uterine cancer. feeling bloated for no reason. that's what i remember. seeing my doctor probably saved my life.

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all right, governor ed rendell. by the way, sunday night, giants/eagles in philly. i like what i saw out of the eagles last week as a giants fan. >> i'll tell you, michael vick, he does bad game, good game. >> all right. governor rendell, thanks so much. still ahead, president obama opening up a lead in three crucial battleground states. we'll bring you those. also, historian evan thomas takes us inside the presidency of dwight d. eisenhower with his new book, "ike's bluff." that's next on "morning joe." with the spark cash card from capital one,

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thank you, mr. president. it's an honor to be here this morning. and i appreciate your kind words and that introduction is very touching. if there's one thing we've learned in this election season, by the way, it is that a few words from bill clinton can do a man a lot of good. all i've got to do now is wait a couple of days for that bounce to happen. >> that was -- >> that was great.

>> pretty good. that's mitt romney at cgi yesterday, the clinton global initiative. that actually was funny. welcome back to "morning joe." mark halperin still with us, pulitzer prize-winning jon meacham joins us on set. you're not going to start selling preorders of your book? >> i don't understand this, against work. she's against work. >> author of the new book, "ike's bluff: president eisenhower's secret battle to save the world." i can't wait. i've already got e-mails from friends saying get me one. >> i read it this summer. it's a great book about a president who is, i think, given the last two presidents we've had, a president whose competence is helping him rise. jon meacham, in the eyes of a lot of historians, looking back at the ike presidency saying, you know, eight years of

competence? eight years not only of competence but ruthless efficiency? that wouldn't be a bad thing to have. >> this is one place where i think the scholarly world was a little bit ahead of the public. fred greenstein at princeton 30 years ago did a book called "the hidden hand presidency" which was saying conventional wisdom is this is a bumbling coffer. what evan has done is apply it to the existential crisis of the middle of the century. >> my family, evan, we're all southern democrats. and i would hear from them growing up that ike -- you know, they loved fdr, the day fdr died, they literally thought the world was going to come to an end. but you talked about ike, and everybody would laugh. oh, he was just a bumbling fool that played golf all the time. and reading your book, that was, unlike most politicians are saying look at this, ike wanted

people think that everybody else was doing everything. >> i had the kind of confidence that allowed him to be humble. he didn't need to show off or being arrogant. he would have hated the celebrity culture today, but he knew what he was doing. and you know, he would -- he was so confident that he was willing to appear a little dumb. once before a press conference when they said oh, you've got to be really careful about this. he said, oh, don't worry, i'll just confuse them. and he did. he would be intentionally inarticulate. >> that's fantastic. >> reagag he and reagan shared . i wonder if he picked that up from vike. they both valued being underestimated. and it paid great dividends for both of them. >> great strategy. >> ike was very good about sharing credit, giving others credit, but also avoiding blame. it was okay with him for others to take the blame. he had this ability to float above the fray.

now, fu coif you conquered and liberated europe, it's easier to be confident. so he had a lot going for him. but he had a kind of natural, good kind of confidence that allowed him to accept a great deal of responsibility and not whine about it. >> we're going to talk about this more, but first, mika, let's go through the news of the day and specifically the polls. >> we're one week out from the first presidential debate. we have brand-new polling this morning from three key swing states. according to the latest quinn quinnipiac poll, president obama leads mitt romney by 10 percentage points in ohio, a double-digit lead in the state no republican has lost and then won the presidency. the president is up nine points in florida. and he has opened up a 12-point lead in pennsylvania. >> mark halperin, look at those numbers. what's it mean? >> well, this poll is better for the president in most of these states than some other public polls, but they're not totally

out of line if you consider public polling and a lot of private polling. and there's no electoral college path for mitt romney if these numbers are anything close to accurate. the president's above 50%. >> the romney campaign does not contest privately that they're behind in florida. they do not contest that they're behind by six or seven in ohio. so all of these people running around saying oh, the polls are skewed and they're liberal, that comes as news to the romney people themselves whose internal polls show the same thing. >> it will take a lot for mitt romney to win, to saying the race is over and looking at those numbers is not advisable, but it will take a lot for him to win. he needs a national turnaround. he's supposed to be a great turnaround artist. that's his reputation and his record. he needs a turnaround, not saying stay the course, everything's fine. >> by the way, mika, the whole idea last week was we've got 50 days left. we really don't. early voting starts in ohio in six days. it starts in florida soon after. >> it's on. >> it's already started in many states.

voting has begun. and a new "washington post" poll gives the president an eight-point advantage in ohio and put him up by four points in florida. it's important to note that as you just said, early absentee voting begins in ohio and florida this tuesday. and october 23rd in pennsylvania. so -- so it really has begun. mitt romney is spending his third straight day in ohio, and president obama heads to the state this morning. today's "new york times" is reporting that aides to romney say the republican candidate and running mate, paul ryan, will be campaigning together more in the coming weeks. according to the report, the move underscores concerns that mr. romney is not generating enough excitement on his own and needs mr. ryan to fire up supporters. that may have been just a tad bit evident during a campaign stop yesterday outside dayton. >> wow!

that's quite a guy, isn't it? paul ryan! isn't that something? wait a second. wait a second. romney/ryan! romney/ryan! romney/ryan! there we go. that's great. >> oh, my lord. i suppose he might have been more confident had he led allied forces to victory in the second world war. that's what you're talking about there. so mitt romney, obviously, behind the eight ball in many, many ways here. >> i mean, i think he's done for unless he saves himself in the debates. there always can be an interv e intervening event. >> an intervening event, okay. >> a meteor. >> what? >> tidal wave. it's going to take something pretty dramatic. if these polls are right, you know, eight, ten points in florida and ohio, that's fatal. >> again, these polls, jon meacham, reflecting what the

private polls in the campaigns are reflecting. not quite ten points in ohio, but six, seven, eight points in ohio. three, four, five in florida. it's pretty tough. and there are fewer undecideds. those undecideds, even if you get to three, four percentage points, those undecideds which are smaller have to break, like, 75/25 for your candidate. and boy, it's more of an uphill battle. >> i think you have to go back to what is essentially pre-history, which is '60 and '68 to get to something where there was enough volatility that makes a comeback like this, a turnaround like this plausible. and those were years that are just not being replicated. we talk a lot about 1980. but that was a case where people were looking for a reason to get rid of the incumbent. what's to me the great story of the campaign is how obama has convinced people, has made that not be the dynamic.

by all rational numbers, by all sort of right track, wrong track until the last week or so, the economic numbers, it should have been an anti-incumbent election. and people would want to -- people would be waiting for romney to do a reagan as in cleveland as he did in 1980 and sort of become plausible. but somehow or another, the president's campaign has kept that from being the decisive moment. >> you know, there are a lot of americans that really sick months ago did not want to vote for barack obama. a lot of swing voters did not want to vote. the president was upside down with independent voters. democrats got absolutely skewered in the off-year election in 2010, minus 16 with independent voters. republicans, though, mark halperin, over this long, ugly primary season and this disappointing stumbling presidential election for republicans, they just haven't given voters a reason. >> an important thing i think for republicans looking for a comeback is that if you go back

a year and say what was the obama general election plan, they have executed it exactly as they envisioned. and they continue to. and they're not done executing. if you look at governor romney and what his plan was, thinking about a general election even back then, they have not executed. they have not made this a referendum on the incumbent, and they are not executing day in and day out. they are jumping around to different things. i asked the president's advisers, any chance you guys are going to add some new element, change your message? they laugh. they are on the same message they knew they could win on. and these margins in some of these polls are bigger or as big as the president had four years ago. >> can i ask you, explain the florida numbers. >> well, you have a terribly flawed candidate. that's the only way you can explain it. florida becomes more conservative by the year. the state house becomes more conservative by the year. the state legislature becomes more conservative by the year. rick scott, i would dare say, is perhaps the most conservative governor in the united states.

florida, i understand it's a swing state in presidential election, but it's a swing state when you have, you know, guys running like mitt romney and john mccain and bob dole. a tough conservative wins florida. >> what was the impact of that ad -- i couldn't believe when he picked ryan, the democrats ran an ad of some guy who looked like ryan pushing granny off the edge of a cliff in a wheelchair. it was subtle. >> it was subtle but that doesn't work because marco rubio got elected by promising. the one big debate that he had with charlie crist and the democratic opponent, he talked about raising social security to 70. bob graham, one of the most popular democratic politicians in florida history, always talked about the need of possibly raising the retirement age for social security and medicare. the voters there are a lot

smarter than politicians think. so no, it wasn't that good. let's talk some more about ike because, again, i think the guy is slowly evolving into my favorite president. talk about -- you say he's a war hero who hated war. and i guess ike, after korea, u.s. serviceman wasn't killed? >> yeah, i think one or two were, but the point is, he did not commit u.s. troops to combat. >> over eight years. >> over eight years after combat. he had lots of opportunities. >> right. >> and he didn't. you know, ike was a soldier who never was in combat himself, but he saw a lot of the aftereffects of war. he went to the concentration camps. he saw what the ukraine looked like after a russian and german armies had marched over it. and he had the essential insight that small wars lead to big wars. and he was determined to avoid any war. the way he did it was to bluff.

he bluffed with nuclear weapons. >> and by the way, he hated war, but his enemies, america's enemies, didn't necessarily know that. >> very important. >> he let them know and in fact, he would bluff that, you know, he basically would say from time to world war ii could look like a spring picnic. >> again, you can get away with this if you're likike. 19 1950s, we forget, that was a scary time. duck and cover drills. nuclear weapons were new. there were lots of crises around the world. the communist threat was real. ike stood up to them, but he never told anybody whether he would actually use those weapons. and it was a successful bluff and he kept america out of war. he was an all-or-nothing guy. if you go to war, go all the way. don't go halfway. >> it was also a scary time. you look what happened at what the soviet union was doing, consolidated their gains in eastern europe. >> going into space.

>> yeah, going into space. >> we lost the first space race. >> yeah. >> that was on his watch. what i was curious about, evan, i think we think of the eisenhower era as this kind of placid domestic political era for getting people like joe mccarthy and richard nixon. talk about the media establishment's view of eisenhower. >> the media establishment basically loved eisenhower. he was their friend. you read his private correspondence. he and the publisher of "time" were great buddies. a lot of time people working in the white house -- it was such a different age. it was not as adversarial. it was much more trusting. correspondents would come out over to the white house, have a few drinks a s with ike. he'd say stuff off the record. he even talked about recognizing china. imagine if that had leaked during the 1950s. it was just a different era. and ike was trustworthy.

reporters also trusted him. >> also talk about ike the republican president that was willing to send troops to little rock. >> you know, he gets a lot of grief on civil rights. and it's true he did not use the bully pulpit. he could have done a better job on that. but he was a subtle guy. he desegregated d.c. when people weren't watching. he desegregated the armed services. it wasn't truman. he appointed all the federal judges that desegregated the south. he believed in moving, as john was saying, with a hidden hand. that's true on civil rights as well. he's been unfairly criticized for being weak on civil rights. he was not as strong as he could have been, but he did things behind the scenes that were important. >> let's talk, presidential historian, jon meacham, who has a book coming out after the election that's forthcoming. "thomas jefferson, t.j." ike, a good president? a near great president? or a great president? >> i would say he's great. i think that he -- one of the things we haven't talked about on the domestic side is he

ratified what franklin roosevelt and harry truman had done in that he could have created -- in 1952, '53, the political climate, i think, and check me on this, evan, was such that if he had been really intent on rolling back the new deal and the fair deal, it would have been a huge fight and would have divided the country even more. so what he did, i think, is what bill clinton essentially did for ronald reagan. >> reagan. >> which is shift the conversation slightly, but accept the basic -- he was burkian -- accept the basic reality of what he found. >> like what they found from margaret thatcher. evan, let me ask you the same question. great? near great? >> great. he had wisdom. he had common sense. he made good choices. he was a big balanced budget guy. >> yeah. >> in this modern age, we forget how important that is.

he managed -- and he stood up to his own generals. he had great moral strength. in those days, the big money was in the military. >> not just his own generals but also to britain, to france. we talk about the suez crisis. that's still stunning. >> behind this genial, goofy guy was a hard man. when britain and france conspired with israel to invade the middle east in 1956, ike just pulled the plug. he said to the brits privately, we'll let you boil in your own oil. no oil from us. he created a little run on the pound. he was a tough guy when he had to be. but again, behind the scenes. >> the book is "ike's bluff: president eisenhower's secret battle to save the world." evan thomas, thank you very much. >> evan, thank you so much. >> stay with us if you can. still ahead, former chair of the fdic sheila bair joins us. she's out with a new tell-all book about her experiences and lessons learned from the financial crisis. and next, former british prime minister, gordon brown,

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king abdullah, of course, is in new york for the u.n. general assembly or as we like to think of it, the reason i can't get to work because of traffic! the event has always a veritable gathering of the international diplomatic juggalos. with libya in turmoil, syria inflames iran, an incredible opportunity for our president not just to address the world community but for in high-level prez-on-prez action. >> the white house says he has no plans to have any private meetings with world leaders. >> oh. well, probably protocol. this is not the time for one-on-one meetings with other world leaders. >> our research shows it's been 20 years since a president has been to that meeting and not met one on one with a foreign

leader. >> oh. well, i guess if the world leaders would like to meet with him personally, they can just donate $5 to his campaign and take their chances like the rest of us. >> all right. here with us now, former british prime minister and the united nations special envoy for global education, gordon brown, joins the table this morning. good to have you on board. you may not talk soccer. >> prime minister brown was a little disturbed that we were over here celebrating the suez crisis, the boiling of brits in oil. we are so sorry. >> we've moved on a long time ago. i don't know if you can move on. >> no, it's very hard. let's talk first of all about the crisis in the eurozone. where do we stand today? it's not on the front payable of the page of the papers so much. >> i would say we've stopped being like greece, and we're probably more like japan, and

we've got this long-term crisis now. when the european central bank came in to be the lender of last resort, you've got some stalemate for the time being, you can prevent things from going very seriously wrong. the problem with europe is it's going to slow very slowly, if at all. it's got a huge banking problem that's still got to be sorted out. the leverage is far worse than the american banks. we've got a competitiveness issue, and we're losing share of output to the rest of the world. so all the time as this crisis is moving to a new dimension, at the same time you've got this long-term shift to asia, particularly to asia, but the emerging markets as well. and europe's not really doing well in these areas. so we've got long-term problems that are going to have to be sorted out. in the short term you can avert a crisis, but in the long term if you've got this recession, you've got low growth, you've got high unemployment, you've got banking issues. >> and politically, how do the germans continue to get their people to support countries like

greece when the greeks are not reforming their taxes? >> well, they don't, actually. that's the problem, isn't it? >> the greeks are not doing what they need to do to become economically solvent. at what point do the swrer mgery we're not going to carry them on our backs anymore? >> well, you've got to accept responsibility for the rest of the union. and that's really the issue that's never been resolved. so everybody joined the monetary union. they all expected everything to be fine every day. when things go wrong, who picks up the pieces? if you've got a lender of last resort, then the lender has got to pick up the pieces at some point. and that means the germans have got to pay their contribution. >> but how long do they pick up the pieces when you have riots in the streets every time somebody in greece suggests that they become fiscally responsible? >> yeah. but look. you've not only got greece, you've got spain, portugal, ireland, italy, you've got high unemployment, in some cases 20, 25% in spain. this problem is not going to go

away. and we've got to face up at some point, if you have an economic union, who is actually going to pay the price? >> so this video has come into us. it's madrid last night. again, these are people who are protesting austerity measures. >> well, you've probably got about 50% youth unemployment in spain. >> oh, my god. >> that is something that cannot continue forever. you've got catalonia threatening to break away from spain now and asking for permission to hold a referendum or even about to hold it without permission. and i think that the problem is that europe is not growing. and you've got to get back to growth. you've had an analysis for the last four years that this is a debt problem. austerity is needed because you've got a debt problem. and if austerity isn't working, let's have more of it, when actually it's a financial sector problem. your banks are not working. it's a competitiveness problem. you can't sell your goods. it's a growth problem. you've not got stimulus in your economy. and if you can't get back to growth, then the deficits will

get worse and not better. and this is the cycle of decline that europe is facing. >> mark halperin. >> prime minister, i take your point about the medium and longer-term issue. how important from a practical and psychological point of view is it to europe for america to have an election and then move to get our fiscal house in order? >> i think it's going to be important that europe and america cooperate to get the world economy moving forward. that's the most important thing. you see, i don't understand, since the rescue of the world economy in 2009, there is virtually no cooperation between america, china, india, europe to get the world economy moving forward. you, america, need to export to the rest of the world. you can't stimulate your economy simply by domestic consumption or public spending or public investment. you need to sell to the rest of the world. china needs to grow, and it needs to sell to europe and america. that's the blasz of a global growth agreement. china concerns more. you probably do a bit more on infrastructure.

trade starts to move forward. people have confidence. and that's what's missing in the world. >> is president obama equipped to be the world leader that brings about that kind of cooperation? >> i think he should. we had an agreement in 2009 that that's what should happen. you know, when it becomes a currency war with china, when people diagnose the problem wrongly in europe and say it's simply a debt problem, you can't make progress. and all the attempts at international economic cooperation have failed. look, we're in an economic economy. growth in the world economy is down to 2.5% this year. you know, it should be 4%, 5%. there's no inflation problem that's preventing growth moving forward. cooperation in trade, trading arrangements and america in particular should be looking to sell to the rest of the world. you've got the best technology in the world. you should be doing even better. >> okay, then. >> prime minister, shifting to national and international security, what is your sense of what afghanistan is going to look like in early 2015?

after the american withdrawal. and can you talk a little bit in that context about where pakistan is and where it's going. >> well, the danger in afghanistan, as we've always worried about, is afghanistan is really partly run by the taliban and partly run by a karzai-type government. and you end up having to cede space to taliban-type forces or come to some compromise with them that means that you go backwards rather than forwards. pakistan, i think, is the epicenter of everything that's really wrong and what's going to be dealt with. and if we could have more constructive relationships with pakistan, and that's very, very difficult, i understand that. if we could have a certainty that they would deal with their own internal problems, then i think that is the key to unlocking more peaceful relationships not just with the indian subcontinent but right across afghanistan. >> so mr. prime minister, your position at the u.n., you have the very small and easy task of

making sure that the u.n. delivers on the world's promise of making sure every child in the world has access to education by 2015. >> yeah. this is a silent emergency. i mean, it is tragic that today -- >> seems like an impossible task. >> 61 million children around the world will not be going to school because they've got no school to go to, no teacher, no classroom. and we've been entirely complacent about the dangers that come when you've got a youthful generation that is unemployed and unemployable in some of the most vulnerable countries in the world. now, i think you could make a huge impact this in a short time. part of it is money. part of it is better organization, part of it's training teachers, ending child labor, millions of young girls have become child brides are taken out of school. it's utterly medieval that that should still be happening. 10 million children a year are becoming child brides. 15 million children working full time under the age of 12 who can't be at school.

now, if we could deal with these problems of ex-.ation and discrimination and prejudice, if we could get investment into teaching and countries like nigeria and india which are capable of affording it, and if we can get some of the trouble spots and get education there reorganized so that we can deliver it, i think we could make a huge impact on this figure. look, this is a shame on the world. it's a shame that you make a promise in 2000, and now there are more children out of school in africa than there were last year. and you've got no chance of meeting this goal unless we take urgent action. and today the secretary-general and all the u.n. organizations, business for the first time, faith groups for the first time are coming together in this coalition to do something about it. you know, i cannot defend a situation where my kid is able to go to school. we spend maybe $100,000 on the education of a kid in the western world. and you know what we spend in africa? $400. that's all we spend on the education of a poor child. and aid is about $12 per child.

you cannot say that that is overgenerous if you're having a debate about aid. >> and yesterday you rang the bell, opening bell at wall street along with your wife, sara, to celebrate. >> yeah, the stock industry went up, i think. >> zoomed up, exactly. and so you are getting -- you are entering into partnerships -- here you are ringing the bell right here. you can see immediately wall street explodes upward, upward! >> these kids loved to be there. they wanted to be stock brokers after that. i said they're going to be teachers. >> that is adorable. >> good for you. >> gordon brown, thank you very much. >> hold on. we need to break down the league. who's it going to be? man city? man u? >> man city lost last night. manchester united. alex ferguson is still the greatest manager in the world. >> he's remarkable. >> they've come back again. they started not so well but they came back and he got von persie, player from arsenal, and

he's been scoring all the goals. your team, liverpool, they'll come back probably in about two or three years' time. >> two or three years' time, but they've got a great manager. they're off to a slow start. >> the only good thing about europe at the moment is the european champions league. you've got barcelona, real madrid, manchester united, some of the greatest teams. great to watch. >> it was something, before the man u/liverpool match this past weekend, the tribute for the 96 who died. it was an absolutely stunning cover-up, even apology from the "sun" which hasn't been read in liverpool for 20 years now. justice. justice for the 96. >> i actually set up that inquiry. >> did you really? >> we got new evidence, yeah. andy berman who's one of our ministers really pushed it very hard. and the results of that is that people have looked back on what really did go wrong. and it's bad news, i'm afraid, for the police and for our legal authorities. but when an injustice is done, it's got to be corrected no matter how long it takes.

if people are going to believe that the justice system is going to work well in the future, an injustice has got to be corrected wherever it is. >> well, thank you for setting up that inquiry. the results really were stunning. >> andy berman was the guy who did it. and he was an everton supporter and he wanted to see justice for the people of liverpool. >> that's huge. that is huge. an everton supporter. >> absolutely. >> we'll have to benicer to gordon. >> everton lost last night as well. coming up, former chairwoman of the fdic, sheila bair, and has tough words for treasury secretary tim geithner. more "morning joe" in just a moment. ♪

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would you say he is frugal or cheap in. >> cheap. >> wow, really cheap. okay. wow. >> do you want to know what he does? when we leave the house, he turns off the hot water heater. >> he turns off the hot water heater? >> do you know what he does when we come back to the house?

he forgets that he's got to turn it on. and he says cold showers, they're not that bad, really. >> on a serious note, talk about the significance if he gets elected being the first morman president. >> you know, i love the fact that we have the first african-american president, that that means to me that we're leaving prejudices behind. i would hope that if mitt were elected, we would see more of the same. that prejudices are being left behind. >> more of the same first african-american -- oh, no, i'm sorry. >> no. get it right, jay. >> i thought you said you'd like to see more of the first african-american president just to show that we're really beyond it. that's not what you meant. >> get it right. >> as first lady, what would your issues be? >> m.s., breast cancer, more awareness, and if i have another disease between now and then, more awareness. >> up next, former chairwoman of the fdic, sheila bair. keep it right here on "morning joe." we've all had those moments.

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44 past the hour. here with us now, former fdic chairwoman sheila bair. she is out with a new book, "bull by the horns: fighting to save main street from wall street and wall street from itself." giving her perspective on the financial crisis that began back in 2008. and you'll remember that bair is one of the first people to have acknowledged the full risk of subprime loans and all that happened after that acknowledgment. i've got a choice for you, joe. >> yes. >> she says that tim geithner seemed to view his job as protecting citigroup from her when he should have been worried

about protecting the taxpayers from citi. we could go there. >> that's a good one. >> or citigroup ceo vikram pandit wouldn't know how to underwrite a loan if his life depended on it. >> this is the great thing about a three-hour show. >> yeah? >> we don't have to make choices. let's start with tim geithner -- >> do we have that much time? >> tim seemed to view his time as protecting citigroup from me when he should have been worried about protecting the taxpayers from citi. it sounds like you believe -- and you say in this book that tim geithner was interested in protecting the big banks. >> well, he was. i mean, i think -- and i've also said that i think he was doing what he thought was right. i think he thought about protecting banks, making them profitable, it was going to benefit the broader economy, and it didn't work out that way. their interests are different from our interests. and i think that was the fundamental problem, the philosophy of the bailout policies that continued on to 2009 and to some extent today. they are two very different things. >> so how did this happen that

the end of 2008, 2009, we were all jumping up and down screaming that the banks were too big to fail? they were too big to fail? >> right. >> and now the banks are even bigger. >> yeah. >> in any of these four or five banks failed tomorrow, we would be bailing them out again. >> i'd like to think not. dodd-frank did give regulators a lot more tools than we had. it can be put into a resolution process that allows them to be funded to stay operational. >> but the banks are bigger. >> but shareholders and creditors take the losses. they are bigger, there's no doubt about it. it's not so much size as it is complexity. what i worry about, what i stay up at night worrying about are these universal banks that have commercial banking but they also have investment banking. they're doing securities market, derivatives, some are doing insurance. they're just very, very complex. >> and citi is the most complex of them all. >> i think because of its international operations. and yeah, information systems were not and i hope they've improved since then, but you had

years of very rapid acquisition activity with citi, and they never really effectively integrate the those operations and had good risk management information systems for the senior management to know what was going on. >> and you also said that when citi selected its new ceo, that was a signal that they were moving from a bread and butter banking operation to a bank that was going to take high risks. >> well, i think it reinforced that. i think that was part of the problem already, when chuck prince was there and of course bob group was somewhat the head of citigroup, there was more risk taking. there were complex securities. they were big into cdos. they pioneered all the nasty initials that we learned during the crisis, they were doing. they weren't really a bread and butter commercial bank. they had been hijacked already by the investment culture, and i think that was just reinforced when they put a hedge fund manager in charge of it, what should have been a very large commercial bank. >> mika, we reached out to the treasury department. they declined to comment.

>> that's a problem. >> they didn't want to talk about it. but not the case with citigroup. citigroup did respond to "bull by the horns" and said "since vikram pandit became ceo during the financial crisis, citi has executed a strategy based on returning to the basics of banking and building a culture of responsible finance." jon meacham, if you only you handled your finances as responsible a way. >> i know, that's why i got married, actually. >> oh, good. >> actually, tomorrow is allowance day. >> is it really? what's it going to pay you? that's fantastic. >> i'm going to go get some bazooka later on. >> great. >> do you find you're a veteran of the political wars, do you find the political system now in '12, '13 less adequate, less able to deal with more tech

technocratic than, say, pick a number, ten years ago? >> oh, absolutely. i think especially in the financial services sector, the growth of financial sector corresponded with the growth of their political influence. and the lobbyists and others used complexity as a weapon. they intimidate people. oh, we're systemic. and who can challenge it? i don't think they need to be this complex. i think we should simplify them. that's one of the recommendations in my book. but the regulators as well as people on the hill need to ask questions, understand it, have staff understand it. i really go to pains to break down these concepts because they're really not that hard. leverage is leverage. you know, risk is risk. you can dress it up in a lot of fancy symbols, but at the end of the day, that's what it was about. so i think they do use that as a weapon, and i think congress is a little cowed by them if not co-opted by the money. >> it seems like you're more of a populist than geithner

regarding the balance between the public interest and the banks. what should either a re-elected president obama or a newly elected mitt romney look for in a treasury secretary to try to strike the balance in a different way? >> well, i think they need someone who's independent of large financial institutions. someone who sees financial institutions as a means to an end, not an end to themselves. they're there dee posit insuran other types of support to support the credit needs of the real economy, not just to fan their balance sheet. i think -- we need that separation and we need someone who believes in regulation, doesn't think it's a bad thing to be a regulator. you know, i don't like a lot of bureaucratic regulation. i think some of the stuff coming out now is highly bureaucratic and it's somewhat inkre meantal, but you can do it. >> quickly, give me the name of someone who should be treasury secretary. >> well, you know, boy, i don't want to get into that. there are a lot of good names out there. i actually think that in the regulatory

space, it's just as important to have people at the fdic, at the fed. if the occ, if they keep it who also, i believe, in effective regulation. for the treasury secretary, my understanding, someone who understands fiscal situation, work with congress to get a decent budget passed and a long-term plan. i think it's unforlt gnat in dodd/frank that they gave some oversight to treasury too. i don't think they're equipped to do it regardless of who's secretary of state. that's another one of my recommendations. >> there's so much to cover in the book. i wonder if you can tell us before we go where housing stands. >> well, i think housing is state sluggish. we're seeing positive signs. there's still a lot of delinquent ones out there, a lot of inventory that hasn't come on the market yet. i think that's one of the fundamental problems in 2008, 2009. again, the focus was all on getting banks profitable again

and getting the toxic assets off the bank balance sheet. yes, housing is coming back but it's sluggish, iffy, and it's going to be a long haul. >> okay. the book is "bull by the horns." >> congratulations. it looks like a great book. we showed you in spain. in athens grease, they take over the streets. we'll have more ahead with cnbc's brian sullivan. >> apparently upset, the parliament said they were going to carry debt, 250% gdp. it's shocking for the kids in the street. >> you know what? at some point the germans are going to say to their leaders, enough. we're not going to keep carrying countries on our back that aren't going to start acting response physically. >> our coverage begins after the break. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ male announcer ] with a driving range

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tweerts love you, meacham. >> i'm very excited. >> not. polls showing mitt romney is down double digits now in states he must win to take the election. those numbers straight ahead on "morning joe."

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good morning. it is 8:00 on the east coast, 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. time to wake up, everyone. take the covers off, get out of bed, and take a live look at new york city. back with us on set we have mark halperin and ed rendell. >> a couple weeks ago -- i'll say it. i tried to sound the warning. like a fire marman, kicking dow door, yelling to people in the bed, get out, get out, save

yourself. they're yelling at me. why are you so upset, you rhino. there's a big piece. buchanan was doing what she had to do. her job is to problem up the romney campaign even when people are saying how bad the campaign is going behind the scenes. talking about "the wall street journal" and the fact that lawyer in gram has had legitimate concerns, rush, you name it. everybody's had concerns. and so what -- they've been -- not conservatives because the conservatives that are leaders who understand what a mess this country's in and our party's in, they're with me. but let's just say some of the screechers, whether it's certain talk radio shows or -- people -- you know, they're blaming the

polls. it's the pollster's fault, right? like the mondale people were blaming the polls the day before the election. blame it on everything else but where the blame lies. that's mitt romney and his horrible campaign. peggy noonan was okay. these idiots people like peggy noonan. these id yachts people like "the wall street journal." the people blast people like laura ingram. they say, why aren't you a loyal republican. a loyal republican says the house is on fire, time is running out. if we're going to save this house, we'd better do it now. i tried a couple of weeks ago. guess what? time's running out. you know when voting is starting in ohio? next week. >> 26 states have already started early voting. >> 26 states have started early voting. in ohio, where the polls show us

how horribly mitt romney is doing in ohio, you know what? i was saying last week, 45 days? there are not really 45 days left. we've got to turn this around or we lose. here's what was writ p, mitt's media blame game. this by a conservative, by the way. extreme right-wing trolls. "the wall street journal." just like "the wall street journal's" been warning mitt romney's campaign for a month now that he'd better do something or else he's going to do. since pulling even in the polls after the paul ryan pick and the gop convention last month, the romney campaign has stumbled repeatedly. yet mr. romney, who's losing by five or more points in iowa, colorado, wisconsin, michigan, ohio, florida, and virginia, sees blue skies ahead. asked how he intended to turn his campaign around, mr. romney told "60 minutes," "wet it

doesn't need a turn around." and romney surrogates were out all over the weekend blaming the liberal media for the campaign's troubles. the press didn't tried ronald reagan and george w. bush any less unfairly. mr. romney would do better to focus more on reducing his unforced ros and less on the fourth state's political bias. if whining about the liberal media was a winning strategy for republicans, newt gingrich would be the nominee. >> that's a great example of what we're talking about here. instead of stepping forward and separating himself from this candidate -- >> you know what? ed to ak-- todd aiken's going t lose that week. it's one week from the first presidential debate and we have brand-new polling out from three separate swing states that show this race is slipping away. >> the big three that a.

>> and they're the big three. >> are you ready? zip it. according to the quinnipiac/new york times/cbs news shows. no republican has lost and then won the presidency. the president is up nine points in florida and has opened up a 12-point lead in pennsylvania. in the same poll president obama leads mitt romney in his handling of the economy in all three states. 51% of the voters say the president would do a better job. >> all right. let's go back to the last slide, guys. mark halperin, let's talk to you. the media is liberal. you said it for years. guess what? republicans have somehow managed to win despite that liberal bias. you've said it repeatedly on the show. so despite that fact, mitt romney is not getting crushed in all three of these states because of liberal media bias.

what's happening there and why is he losing so badly, especially in ohio? >> well, it's very unlikely the president will win those states by these margins, but these states are not out of line with private polling and some other polling. i think the biggest problem now remains him. the president says something, the republicans get all excited about it. they treat it like a gaffe. they'll talk about it if a day. and then they'll move on to something else. the biggest danger for me now for the republican party are two things. one is that you look at polls in terms of who people think is now going to win and from leading republicans and rank and file republicans you hear increasingly the president is going to win. that's a dangerous thing for anybody to be running in the headwinds of. right now the democrats could not only hold the senate, they could actually pick up a seat in the senate. i don't know what happens to the house. if the president wins by these

huge margins and they take -- pick up a senate seat rather than lose control of the senate, the house is going to be in play. it's not today, but republicans right now are in danger of having this thing just fall in on itself and it all can be turned around if governor romney performs better. >> by the way, bill kristol has begun to be concerned with a weekly standard about the republicans losing the house. again, you don't help your party when the person at the top of the ticket is doing such a horrific job that he could not only endanger the presidency but could endanger both houses. >> is it the person at the top of the ticket that's so flawed, ed rendell, that the party won't be able to move forward? >> well, absolutely. although i don't think mitt romney started out as a flawed candidate. i think mark's point is incredibly relevant. campaigns today, joe and mika, focus on winning the day, winning the day.

president obama says bump in the road. get all excite and push "bump in the road" and it distracts them from what ought to be the overall message. the media drives that. they don't have to react to the media. if i was running for president, i'd stay on course. all the romney campaign seems to be doing is reacting to the theme of the day. >> if you look inside the numbers, "the new york times" poll and "the washington post" poll, people in the state of ohio, now people in florida, too, by a majority are saying the economy's getting better, i trust president obama now to lead the economy. this is man who's up against huge unemployment numbers. you can rattle through all the economic data that should not be good for president obama. yet in the three or four states that matter, the tide is switching i thought florida, nine points, is the most shocking. >> florida 9 points, florida, 4

points. i have said -- >> he's going to be wiped out. >> the other thing that's a problem is the gender gap. the gender gap is gigantic. why did the romney campaign have these young people. they're not addressing it with the presidents' daily so-called gaffes. >> romney was on leno last night. i didn't see the whole thing but the clip i saw -- i dodge know. think it's a little tin. i know that's tough to say but the relatability issue is constant. >> there's a big issue. they have trouble relating. remember, we were driving around tampa, and we drove past -- ed, you'll understand this, being a populist republican, a conservative populist republican, we were passing all these little sort of ranch houses, probably 1,800 square

feet, whatever, probably cost $70,000, 75,000 bucks, and as we were driving past, i said you know why mitt romney's not going to win? look at these houses. every one of these houses voted for them, every single person. i could go knock on the door and they'd know my name and they'd ask for the yard sign. how many of these little ranch houses are going to vote for mitt romney. and just so i don't make it about myself. you could have said the same thing about george w. bush. those people in the ranch houses voted for george bush. >> or jeb. >> or jeb bush. they voted for ronald reagan. they voted for conservatives that they thought could relate to them. you look at the ranch houses now. they may not like barack obama, but are they going to go out and vote for mitt romney? i think -- mika, i think -- you know -- and you were looking at them. yeah, it's the relatability. >> you can't tell anymore who they would vote for, and it used to be pretty clear.

i want to show you this sound bite. mitt romney is spending, of course, his third straight day in ohio. president obama is reporting there later this morning. the new york times says they'll be campaigning more often in the coming weeks. the move underscores the fact that mr. romney is not generating enough excitement on his own and ryan is needed to fire up more supporters. >> wow. that's quite a guy, isn't it? paul ryan. isn't that something? wait a second. romney/ryan, romney/ryan, romney/ryan. there we go. thank you. >> oh, sweet jesus. >> i'm sorry, i'm sorry. i shouldn't be so hard on you.

i shouldn't bring um newt gingrich. >> it's just irrelevant. >> it's irrelevant. what do the catholics say? holy mary mother of god, pray for us sinners now and in thy hour of peace? >> no. it's other. >> i just did bad having gone to catholic high school. it's in the end of "godfather 2." >> how do you fix it? >> you don't fix it. he's a great man. he's a great father, great husband, great businessman, great turnaround guy. if i had a business anywhere in the world, e'd have him run it. he's just -- he's a horrible politician. he's one of the worst. he's great guy. i just want to say, he's a great, gate, guy, but, man, ed rendell, you know it.

great guy. >> mitt romney when i knew him as governor of massachusetts was smart, competent, confident. >> so you think he could be worked with if he had the right team around him? >> well, i think they tried to make him into something he's not, and when that happens in politics, it screws you up for everything. he is a moderate. he believes in certain things. when he demonstrated to us his health care plan, myself and my staff went up there when he was still governor. he was proud of the plan. he knew every little detail about the plan and he was enthusiastic. >> blew people away. >> and the plan is a great plan. be proud of it. be proud of it. it's a major accomplishment. don't run from it. you've got to be yourself when you're a politic. people have a great sense of knowing when you're trying to be something you're not. >> remember george bush back in 1988, you know, we look at him as such a great man now, but sometimes he would try to be -- get a little goofy on the campaign trail and embarrass himself. and when he was himself, he was

-- >> terrific. >> -- a remarkable man, a war hero, a great leader. it's just -- it's rough. i don't understand though -- you know, willy, we were covering four years ago in iowa where he was playing right-wing evangelical conservative, and it didn't work for him. nobody believed him. we heard he was going to be himself this time. >> yeah. we're not seeing it. we've seen a number over the curse of months, a number of interviews where he's asked a question. we've said this many times where you see the gears turning, what am i supposed to say here. instead of just being himself. it may have caught up to him. mika talked about relatability inside the washtched polls of yesterday. that goes to president obama, too, among some republicans. >> i thought a seminole moment in the campaign is when mitt

romney was asked about the blount amendment. and his first response, i would never be in favor of it. the next day he was for the bloenlt amendment. he had a chance to carve out some relationship with women by saying it's abusive and i'm against it. what are conservatives going to do? vote for barack obama? he had so many chances during the campaign to carve out his own identity, which i think is closer to the real mitt romney. >> mark halperin? >> two events here in the city. he talked about his roles in the city. very educational. very educational show with brian. showed that he's a policy guy, cared about issues as the governor dug into him. but that mitt romney does not get very much attention and he doesn't put it on display very often. and it's now -- the thing he has to become is a fighter. he has to have guys like joe

scarborough look at him every day and say he's fighting for the party, for the country, and fighting to turn the country around. i don't see that but if he doesn't see that. em's going to be very hard to keep the party behind him. >> what's coming up next, mika? >> coming up, from the nuclear tension in iran to the war in syria, can the u.n. security council come up with any solution? "guys with kids" co-created by jimmy fallon. we'll talk with one of the stars. first, bill karins with a check of the weather. bill. >> good morning, mika and everybody else. around the country, it's been pretty quiet. we haven't had a lot of nasty weather. we're going to our nasty weather now that's a little more gloomy, a little more murky. doan expect a brilliant blue skies or sunshine around many areas of the country.

we're watching two days in a row with rainy weather in illinois and indiana along with cooler temperatures. thunderstorms in louisville. now in new england, it's kind of a cloudy day. a little bit of sunshine down along the mid-atlantic. most of the rain should be very light. temperatures will be mild today, much warmer than the days ahead. enjoy the 70s while they last. looks like we're going to be stuck in the 60s throughout the week with on-and-off rain. i mentioned new york city, one of those areas that has enjoyed great september. look at the next four or five days. temperatures taking a big dip in the days ahead. as far as the areas still looking pretty warm, southern half of the country. texas, a little cooler but we're still in the low 90s. we're leaving you with a shot of st. louis. you've been one of the areas dodging the rain. you're looking dry for the time being. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks.

you're looking dry for the time you're looking dry for the time

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♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ i know there are some who ask why don't we just ban such a video. the answer is enshrined in our laws. our constitution protects the right to practice free speech. i accept that people are going to call me awful things every day. and i will always defend their right to do so. and on this we must agree. there is no speech that justifies mindless violence. [ clapping ] >> let me be clear.

americans want to resolve this issue through diplomacy, and we believe there is still time and place to do so, but that time is not unlimited. we respect the right of nations to access peaceful nuclear power, but one of the purposes of the united nations is to see that we harness that power for peace. make no mistake, a nuclear armed iran is not a challenge that can be contained. it would threaten the elimination of israel, the security of gulf nations, and the stability of the global economy. >> 21 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." that was president obama, of course, addressing the united nations yesterday, strongly condemning the anti-islamic video that's caused so much unrest in the middle east, but id did not justify the attacks on the u.s. embassies and also delivering a stern warning to iran over its nuclear ambitions. joining us now under the british

parliament, alistair burt. nice to have you on the show this morning. >> thank you, good to be back. >> what are they saying here at home trying not to create too many waves why sending a clear message. >> i thought it was clear about the balance of speech, understanding the damage the video had done but a very clear statement of what american values and universal values in terms of freedom of speech. nothing could undo the tragic death of ambassador stevens. some very interesting things in his speech. good speech. >> let's go to iran. >> yeah. >> you know, there are obviously a lot of criticisms for not

meeting with the president. is there anything at this point that the united states could be doing that it is not doing beyond taking a step, a clear step toward all-auout war? >> the united stateses is working with other powers including united kingdom. they've made it clear the path iran is on is highly dangerous. it's absolutely right. we're giving iran every opportunity to show that their program is safe. they're not taking it. the president has said and all the other parties agree, this is not an unlimited time iran has got. >> we never get anywhere with iran. you used the words "negotiated solution." what does that mean? they're a country that seems be playing cat and mouse all the

time. >> there are two alternatives here. one is that it's good. the other two are bad. one is a nuclear-capful iran and the other is a strike on iran that will cree pro deuce a physical reaction from iran and who knows what. that's why it's essential to carry this on. that day is coming, and we all know it, but you've got to talk as long as you possibly can. >> john meacham. >> one of the things that doesn't get talked about very much in the war gaming literally about the possible strike on iran, is what does day two look like? just in purely tactical strategic conversations, can you tell us what the implication could be about what iran would do? >> beyond saying day two is bad,

no one knows. that's the point. everyone knows, the moment there is a physical strike against anyone, the moment the shooting starts think all the tacticians say, you never know what happens next. it's all right to say you have a plan but more or less the plan goes out the window. what we know is there plans to be a physical attack. can they rally allies behind its cause. will they say we've been unfairly attacked? as i say, the consequences of iran proceeding on its course is bad. if there's nuclear proliferation in the area, it's disastrous. they've made it clear, preventing iran of having a nuclear capability is absolutely what it's about because the consequences are dreadful. we would argue the strikes are just as dangerous but clearly if there come as time to do what needs to be done, our prime minister and the president has said all the options are on the

table. what's important is iran realizes their obligations under their own treaty and steps away. it's entitled to a nuclear program, that can be done, but they have to make the right move. >> most of the focus is on the negative things. loss of american diplomats' lives and unrest in syria. what do you see besides the general move toward democratization. what do you see as positive in any of the countries that give us hope that things are moving in the right direction? >> i've been at my post through this arab spring area. i always said to the people at any particular point at the end of the first paragraph, the first page of a chapter in a book, i don't know where it's going to go. it's much too early to say how this is all going to pan out. you can pick out straightforward things. there's been free elections. parties have been elected. they're all working in

coalition. you have an islamic party working with sec you lar coalition parties. libya that -- you know, this time last year they were in a war and in nine months they've produced elections for a government. but it won't be easy but it won't be linear. the path to democracy, it's a process. it's not a suv event, so it will take time and there will be setbacks. the tragedy of the other week was a setback of immense proportions and the hurt done to the united states and people in libya recognizing that a friend of libya had been killed. this is a setback of terrible proportions. but the process of democracy, to give people pluralism, the freedom of choice, that process will go on, but we're yet to see how easy that will sit with those who would like to use a bit of freedom to repress others. who knows how this is going to go. but we're still optimistic. >> meechham.

>> prime minister gordon brown was here. he used the phrase pakistan is the epicenter of the problems we face. and my sense was implications and beyond. can you tell us what you think a post-american afghanistan looks like and what the issues of pakistan are? >> well, firstly, when the international forces -- combat forces withdraw in 2014, it's important to know it will not be a switching off of lights. we'll be involved in training and so forth. we switched out the lights a few years ago when the russians left and you saw what happens if you leave in a vacuum. we're all going to be involved. pakistan is not the easiest partner. it's difficult political situation. it's a difficult power situation, a balance between the military, intelligence services, the army, and, of course, the civilian administration. it takes work and it takes

effort. continually because there are people who do not want to back it, they've got be engaged with it. so i hope sort of post 2014 afghanistan will not be a post united states pakistan or pakistan. staying engaged is tough but it's very important. just as there are those who want the united states to leave, you make the calculation, would you want them to hold there or leave. >> thank you very much for coming in. >> my pleasure. >> that was enlightening. coming up, the new nbc show "guys with kids." anthony joins us on set. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier,

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ooh. oh, marniy. my scalp hasn't tingled like this since 12 years ago last sunday when i watched you walk down that aisle. >> it's open. right there, fellows. >> what? you -- no -- i -- my brain is so

relaxed i can't grasp what's happening. >> i know you were waiting for black friday to get a tv on sale, but i felt so bad i wanted to get it for you now. happy anniversary. >> oh, my god. oh, my god. this is the best moment of my life. corky, yoda, you've got to see this. come in. look. >> oh, my god! box! >> that was a scene from the new sitcom "guys with kids," which premieres tonight at 8:30 on nbc. joining us now, one of the stars of the show, anthony anderson. >> good morning. >> we're going to have a diplomatic incident if we don't mention our other guest. >> you guys are using words that i -- >> look, man. i went to public school in

compton. hold on. >> nobody said throw weight. >> i know scintillating. >> in greensboro, hello. >> hello, greensboro. >> thank god. tell us about "guys with kids." >> it's great. it's a story about celebrating hollywood. my two co-stars. >> what sit you do actually ? >> see, that's just unnecessary. >> me in particular on the show, i'll tell you what i do since i am a stay-at-home dad, which is the most important job that you can have. >> really? >> is a stay-at-home parent. >> it's funny how it becomes so important when a guy does it. go ahead. >> what do you mean? >> i'm sorry. >> what do you mean? >> we're going to go this. >> this is like dan rather. >> i gave up my career on the show so my wife could go out and

do what she wants so i could raise my four boys. >> really. >> yes, really. it's a thankless job. >> we know this. >> look, i sympathize with you. >> do you? >> yes, i do. >> tell us what you go through. tell us about the struggles with "guys with kids." let me guess. >> i have four boys all under the age of 8, a set of twins that are under 9 months old. >> that's pretty bad. >> i have a deal with them. >> i bet at the park when you're walking around with dids can, the women walk up to you and say, oh, my god, look at you. >> actually that's how i made the twins. i was pushing the other two boys around and a lady came up. >> exactly. case closed. >> can i say something? are any of them cute and do any of them say the darndest things? >> they're all cute. >> pretty good. >> and my 6 and 7-year-old, they say some crazy things. but what was i going to say? jesse bradford -- you know zack

krieger, my co-star, he had three of the kids fired from the show. >> oh. >> yeah. in front of a live audience. >> wait a minute. >> they were triplets, his babies. >> flubbing their lines? >> flubbing their lines, picturing him when they weren't -- >> are you serious? >> yeah. throwing them under the bus. these kids were working for their college tuition. >> how old were they? >> 9 months. >> 9 months? so they had to bring in stunt doubles to replace them? >> yes, they had to. >> can't you photoshop? >> you say photoshop. >> this is all cgi'd. >> look at them. oh, my lord. >> but it's a great show. you know, i'm married to the beautiful bledsoe, vanessa from

""the cosby show."" >> jimmy fallon. i love jimmy fallon. >> king fallen is what he makes us call him. >> how is he to have around? >> he's never around. >> that's the best manager to have. >> very abusive, never shows up. never does anything. the only reason i know he's part of the show is because i hear from the creative guy on commercials. >> he likes to call it mailbox money. me, i work for mine. >> what do you make of the landscape? you're on at 8:30, nbc. >> i'm not a gardner. >> here we go. what do you think the biggest challenges are to sort of break through? >> you know what? it's crazing. we were having a conversation about it. just doing the pilots. the networks only have so many time slots to kill. you really have to capture

lightning a bottle, and we did. it's a throwback to the shows we grew up watching, "all in the family," the cosby fkos bcosby >> when you come back to join us again, will you bring three babies? >> i have them in the room right now. i travel with them. >> i love them. bring them on the set. >> i will. >> that's it? >> that's it. >> you talk about pakistan for 12 days and you spent three minutes? >> anthony, it was five minutes? >> really? >> yeah. >> okay. three of it was fake, talking about the thankless job you have. >> it went so fast because i'm so sweet and kind and fun to be with. >> where's joe? this is "morning joe." where's joe? >> am i not good enough. >> you're great, sweetheart. is joe an enigma?

>> he kind of is. >> pilot show meets "the wizard of oz." >> best of luck. can't wait to watch you. "guys with kids" on nbc at 8:30. coming up next, protesters take to the streets in grease falling new austerity measures. we're going to talk about that story and brian sullivan joins us next before "business with the bell kwgts next. we'll be right back. this country was built by working people.

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president obama and i both career poor families. the difference is my policies will make things better for them. we shouldn't measure compassion by how many people are on welfare. we should measure compassion by how many people are able to get off welfare and good a good-paying job. >> welcome back to "morning joe." a beautiful shot of washington, d.c., on a beautiful morning. hey, so mark halperin, that was obviously part of a new r.i.m. ad. what do you think of the message? >> i think it's quite good. it's partly in response to the secret video to try to recover on that, but it's the core message of trying to review for people what it's been like the last four years, and governor romney -- they say he's not strong on camera. he's going to have to come vince people he's the right guy and he doesn't have the convention to do that. given where they are, it's a pretty good spot. >> i think he's going do well in the debates, jon. and the obama campaign is

already sort of spinning saying, well, we lost 17 of 18 debates against hillary, although it's not spin if it's true. he really did. the president doesn't play the game of, you know, tell us about the middle east in 90 seconds. he's not good at that. he's great at giving big speeches but i think romney can do very well over three debates. >> he's got -- you know, the president has, i think, kind of a contempt for sound bites. >> that's a great way to put it. >> what i would say back to that is "mr. gorbachev," tear down this wall is a sound bite. sometimes big ideas have to be torn down into sound bites. >> we have not. jfk in his inaugural speech. sound bites. >> that's just another way of

saying clarity of thought. i think we're still in a place where if president obama had to build his library in the next, you know, x number of years, what would you -- is there a short phrase you could put on the wall? lots of paragraphs, and that's right. but there's also, you know, something to be said for a pithy way of talking. >> and the problem is there is a statement they put on the wall, but they change it every day. >> yeah. >> they're responding to barack obama's mistakes instead of saying it's economy stupid or are you better off than you were four years ago, even if they had borrowed from reagan anded with that every day, they would be cutting through it rather than the way they're cutting through it, responding to libya, responding to faux pas, responding on "60 minutes," responding to every other person

last night. what he did the last four years, if you believe like i believe in smaller government and balanced budgets, he -- his record is absolutely horrific. so go out and say his economic message is horrific if you believe it. and he's just not doing it. "business before the bell" is the time of day we all come together as a communal family. it's where -- who is the guy? >> marshall mccluen. >> he said, we're going to be in a global village. he was actually foreseeing the 45 seconds we give brian sullivan all the news across the financial world on "morning joe." let's tournen the light switch and bring the global world together and ask brian sullivan what's going on across this wonderful world of ours, brian. >> i've really got to take up yoga given these tosses. if we're a global village.

>> i told you we are. >> i know, but it's not right. >> my show. >> they're rioting in europe. that's not a village. >> but it's a village all the same. individu v villages riot. >> i guess you're right. sometimes you come together over a glass of wine, sometimes over a molotov cocktail again. >> again, it embarrasses me to always be right, but these are pictures of rioting in spain. now let's see what's happening in greece. and now let's see what's happening on the other side of the village in spain. we've got rioting as well in spain. >> and we had riots around prots in portugal. >> and, by the way, is it not coincidence we had protests in green bay on sunday night. >> here's the thing. the austerity issue is coming back in europe.

it kind of went off the take for a few months. they're trying to hammer out new budgets in greece. those budgets include, and this goes to america, dramatic cuts in pensions, in retirement, in breaking unions. do these themes sound familiar, right? and that's what's happening in europe. maybe on grander scale than we have discussed here, but the people don't want to be told that their retirement funds are going to be cut, that they've got to work harder, and by the way, there's about a 25% unemployment rate among young men in spain. a lot of young guys with no jobs and no prospects is not a good way to get social order. >> probably not. you know, jon meacham, i'm going to use a line from a powe. that's never been used before. >> okay. >> just because i'm a new kind of thinker. i'm a creator. >> right. >> the senate cannot hold. >> you are a poet creator.

>> the senate cannot hold. the numbers aren't sustainable. the pengs aren't sustainable. what the unions warrant, they're not sustainable. the debt to gbp is not sustainable. the political situation is not sustainable. this is going to blow up. i mean why do you think we have the rolling stones singing in the background. >> that's my fantasy football name, by the way, "give mechelle ter." >> we're so glad to know that. >> the line they took out is the debts cannot hear the debtor. >> exactly. >> just a shot away. it's just a shot away. >> you've done it again, brian. "morning joe" back in a moment. [ female announcer ] roam like the gnome this fall.

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i'm meteorologist bill karins with your business travel forecast today. umbrellas needed in many areas and airport delays are possible with pockets of rain. they continue this morning from kansas city to st. louis. all the way through the louisville and cincinnati areas.

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welcome back to "morning joe." it's so great to have you here. we're going to talk about what we learned today. pulitzer prize winner jon meacham who has a fourth book. >> enough of his book. it's not even on sale yet. >> what have you learned? >> i learned evan thomas has written a great book about eisenhower. >> what have you learned. >> kids say the darndest things but not necessarily on this. >> what have you learned, mika? >> i've learned when women have kids they just have them. when men take care of them, they have a show about it. >> which reminds me of a story about my four children that i almost raised with my bare two hands. >>